Politics? Meh. Work? Ha! Errands and responsibilities at home? Blew 'em off, with the wife's blessing, naturally.

It's been a while since I have been given the go-ahead from my wife to spend a whole day just climbing while she watched the little ones, so I took full advantage. I'd had an email forwarded to me by Rick from a lurker on the Taco- let's call him Jack- looking for new partners to really explore new trad and maybe some obscurities with the SNORT team. Figured it was time to meet and greet and get on some rock.

"Jack" turned out to be thoroughly upbeat, motivated, and probably a much more capable climber than myself. So, we made plans to head out early yesterday morning. I picked him up, with no particular destination in mind, and we headed toward Indian Springs. We didn't quite make it.

First stop was Freeway Slab, right below the top of Donner Summit. We bushwhacked our way to the base, picked an obvious line, and went up. I led first, and picked an obvious placement which, upon climbing above, turned out to be a mini-fridge sized detached block. Eek! I promptly set two good pieces above and removed that cam. Then it was all about the gardening. Turns out the route is not in Jackson's North Tahoe guide; and though I'm sure it's been done before, it sure felt like a FA. We pitched it into two just for fun, and Jack took us to the top. He's relatively new to trad, so I assured him his anchors looked just fine. Then we bushwhacked back to the car and sped off to the next crag.
We found ourselves sidetracked at the In-Between cliff near Rainbow Bend. Talk about a killer approach! I think I almost twisted an ankle walking the 30 ft between the road and the base. Jack led #6 and I followed, then I led #4 and he followed (Jackson's N. Tahoe guide). Lots of scree on every ledge. Lots of bolts on the top, some of which are slightly and unsettlingly buried in large detached-looking blocks. Meh. Sorry, no pics. Tempted to jump in the river; but didn't bring swim trunks. Next time for sure!
We finally drove down to Indian Springs, decided it was too baked in the sun, had lunch, and headed toward Donner in search of shade.
Ended up on School Rock. Wandered up some sort of impromptu variation of Mary's Crack. Jack led near the tree. I led up to/through the awkward corner/roof thing (which was thoroughly awkward and fun, with a chicken wing for S&G) and nearly to the top. Shoulda brought a 70m. Then we topped out with fantastic views and grins on our faces. Glad we brought our real shoes clipped to our harness for the walk off.

Swizzled a cold PBR, ate a snack back of Funions, and headed home.
New partners are interesting, and climbing doesn't have to be hard for me to have fun. It was really a fantastic day to be out there, and we fully enjoyed it.